The drama took place in the 2020 Emilia Romagna MotoGP race which was held at the Misano Circuit, Italy, Sunday (9/20/2020). Many racers fell and failed to finish. Noted, a total of 7 racers failed to complete the race.
Perhaps the saddest rider was Francesco Bagnaia. The racer from the Pramac Racing team is currently leading the race until the race leaves only 7 laps. Unfortunately, the 23-year-old Italian racer crashed at Turn 6.
Unlucky fate also came to the veteran racer idol of all people, Valentino Rossi. Rossi became one of the riders who failed to complete the 2020 Emilia Romagna MotoGP race. Rossi chose to return to the pits on lap 17 after previously falling on the second lap.
However, the most unlucky rider deserves to be pinned on Fabio Quartararo. The French racer from the Petronas Yamaha team did manage to finish. However, after touching the finish line and returning to the pits, the 21-year-old racer looked angry and disappointed.
Quartararo finished third behind Vinales and Mir. Unfortunately, he had to drop to fourth position due to a long lap penalty penalty towards the end of the race. The third podium was given to Pol Espargaro who finished 4th.
Actually, what Long Lap Penalty that Quartararo receive?
Long Lap Penalty (LLP) is a penalty imposed on riders / racers if they cross the circuit track limit. For violating the limits of the Misano Circuit track several times, Quartararo received a Long Lap Penalty sentence in the last round of the 2020 Emilia Romagna MotoGP race.
In the replay, Quartararo was caught on camera violating the track limit at Turn 16 when he was dueling with Joan Mir and Pol Espargaro. As a result, the race director imposed 3 seconds penalty which made Quartararo’s position drop to 4th.
Previously, the Long Lap Penalty rule was first applied to MotoGP 2019. This rule has also been enforced since the first series in Qatar 2019.
How is the mechanism?
Reporting from the MotoGP page, there are certain decisions that cause a racer to deserve punishment.
If a racer crosses the track limit, the race director will give an early warning to the racer on their dashboard. If the racer commits several violations (5 violations), and the racer benefits from the action, a new LLP penalty will be imposed.
In the moment that was caught on camera, Quartararo did cross the track limit when he was competing with another racer. The race director judged him to have an advantage because he did not cross the same track with other racers.
According to the official rules, Quartararo should have served his LLP sentence by entering and passing the special LLP penalty route on the Misano circuit. Each circuit in MotoGP is assigned a special mark for the LLP penalty area and by passing this route, a racer will automatically lose a few seconds.
The time limit for serving an LLP is 3 laps. Unfortunately, in the remaining laps of the 2020 Emilia Romagna MotoGP race, Quartararo did not serve this sentence because he claimed not receiving a warning.
As a result, the race direction decided to give Quartararo a penalty in the form of an additional 3 seconds of punishment. This ultimately made him fail to get the third podium.
In contrast, another opinion was expressed by Joan Mir, who was his duel competitor in the race on Sunday (20/9). Mir doubts Quartararo’s claim who admits he did not receive a warning.
Quartararo, who failed to reach the podium due to the Long Lap Penalty penalty, had to be satisfied with only getting an additional 13 points. As a result, he failed to coup Andrea Dovisioso from the top of the drivers’ standings. Dovi who was lucky to finish in position 8 only got an additional 8 points.
